Yachting World Diamond Buyer's Guide
The Yachting World Diamond is a Jack Holt-designed multiple-chine keelboat of nominally 30 feet, conceived for racing and short-range inshore cruising and later renamed from the Yachting World Keelboat. Built from timber, then GRP from the mid-1970s, and foam sandwich in the early 1980s, the class has a strong Australian presence and a current resurgence of interest, with weekly racing at Williamstown and Geelong. For a buyer entering the used Yachting World Diamond market, the spread of construction types and the extensive owner modifications documented across surviving boats make a careful, history-aware survey essential.
Layouts on the Used Market
Early timber Diamonds and the original design offered two berths forward with inflatable mattresses aft and only rudimentary facilities, but the GRP cruising version introduced a cabin-top with two berths and two more under the raised aft deck. Many boats on the market will have been converted: Dianna carried a four-berth cabin with centreboard and transom-hung rudder before later extension, while Saltash II gained a cabin and self-draining cockpit in its 1985 ocean-racing refit. A buyer should confirm which layout a specific hull represents, as the same class name covers starkly different interior arrangements.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Documented upgrades on individual Diamonds show the range of owner changes a used boat may carry. Power and energy items include diesel or outboard engines added to racers like Bristol I and Saltash II, plus an electric winch for the centreboard on Dianna. Sail-handling modifications feature twin trapezes adopted nationwide from the mid-1970s, spinnaker chutes such as the one on Eclipse, and a metre added to rig height on Black Diamond. Comfort and protection work appears as epoxy sheathing on Black Diamond and teak deck laid on Dianna. A buyer should verify that any such modification was structurally sound and matched to the boat's intended use.
What to Inspect
Relatively few of the 130 timber versions are believed to survive, so a timber hull's provenance and condition are central. The Wrights' restoration of Saltash II shows the 1960s plywood starting to delaminate, and their work is replacing all hull skins with new plywood plus epoxy and lightweight carbon weave. On Dianna, the steel keel plate is 20mm with lead ballast lifted by electric winch, and a buyer should confirm the keel and ballast attachment integrity. Black Diamond had been epoxy sheathed but the record of its full condition is incomplete, so a surveyor should assess any repaired or sheathed hull for hidden rot.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
YW Diamonds are considered to have become far more popular in Australia than any other country, with the first local example built at Pittwater (New South Wales) in 1962 and about 130 built across all states a decade later, racing regularly in all states except South Australia. Survivors race weekly at the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria in Williamstown and the Royal Geelong Yacht Club in Geelong, Victoria.
Checklist:
- Confirm construction type (timber, GRP, foam sandwich) and surviving timber hull provenance
- Verify modification history against structural survey (trapezes, rig height, engine wells)
- Inspect plywood skins for delamination and prior epoxy or carbon repairs
- Check keel plate and ballast attachment on centreboard-equipped cruisers
- Match cabin layout to your cruising or racing intent before purchase